SilverBullet vs SiYuan
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted notes & knowledge base options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
SilverBullet
Hackable note-taking for the self-hosted web
VS
SiYuan
Privacy-first personal knowledge management system
| Feature | SilverBullet | SiYuan |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Notes & Knowledge Base | Notes & Knowledge Base |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker | docker, binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 5,796 | ★ 45,670 |
| First released | 2022 | 2020 |
| Replaces | Notion, Obsidian | Notion, Evernote |
Why pick each one
Frequently asked questions
Is SilverBullet or SiYuan better?
Neither is universally better. SiYuan has the larger community, while SilverBullet is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are SilverBullet and SiYuan free and open-source?
Yes. SilverBullet is licensed under MIT and SiYuan under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run SilverBullet and SiYuan with Docker?
SilverBullet: yes. SiYuan: yes.